Otter is the legacy brand in meeting transcription, but its free plan is tightly metered - 300 minutes a month, a 30-minute cap per conversation, and 3 lifetime file imports - it captures with a bot, stores everything in its cloud, and reserves its real-time Live Assist coaching for Enterprise. Raven has no minute cap, captures locally with no bot, keeps recordings on your machine, adds free real-time assist on every tier, and is open source.

At a glance

At a glance

RavenOtter
Live in-call assistYes - freeLive Assist (Enterprise) + live AI chat
Free-tier limitNo minute cap300 min/month, 30-min per conversation, 3 lifetime imports
CaptureLocal, bot-free (Mac + Windows)Bot joins the meeting
Where your meetings liveLocal SQLiteOtter's cloud
PriceFree, open source (your own keys)Free (300 min); Pro $8.33/user/mo annual ($16.99 monthly); Business $19.99/user/mo annual ($30 monthly)
Open sourceYesNo

Price

Price

Otter’s free tier is really a trial: 300 transcription minutes/month, 30 minutes max per conversation, and 3 lifetime imports. Pro ($8.33/user/mo annual, $16.99 monthly) raises that to 1,200 minutes; unlimited transcription only arrives on Business ($19.99/user/mo annual, $30 monthly).

Raven doesn’t meter minutes at all. You pay your own transcription/AI provider for usage - typically a few dollars a month - with no per-seat fee.

Where your meetings live

Where your meetings live

Otter records with a bot that joins your call, and stores transcripts in its cloud. Raven captures locally (macOS ScreenCaptureKit + CoreAudio, Windows WASAPI), splits You and Them on-device, and writes everything to a local SQLite database. No bot shows up in the meeting; audio only goes to the providers you chose with your own keys. Open source means the data path is auditable.

What Otter does better (honestly)

A big, mature brand with polished iOS/Android apps.

  • Deep integrations and meeting-wide search across a large archive.

  • Live Assist real-time coaching (Enterprise) and live AI Chat during meetings.

  • OtterPilot and team/admin features for larger orgs.

If you need mature mobile apps and a big cloud archive with team admin, Otter is established.

When Raven wins

When Raven wins

  • You keep hitting the 300-minute or 30-minute-per-call free limits.

  • You don’t want a bot in the meeting or your transcripts in a cloud.

  • You want free live help during the call - Otter’s Live Assist is Enterprise-only.

  • You’d rather pay your AI provider cents than a per-seat subscription - and audit the tool.

Switching from Otter

Switching from Otter

  1. Export any transcripts you want to keep from Otter.

  2. Download Raven, add your keys, enable meeting auto-start.

  3. Run both for a week; cancel Otter once Raven covers your transcription + notes habit. (Importers are on the roadmap.)